Ariana Grande’s Nonna, Marjorie Grande, received an award for becoming the oldest person to have ever appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
“Celebrating the one and only, most beautiful Nonna who has now made history for being the senior most person to ever appear on the @billboard Hot100. We love and thank you,” Ariana, 30, captioned a photo via Instagram on Tuesday, April 16. Nonna, 98, could be seen smiling while holding up the framed Billboard award.
Nonna was featured on “Ordinary Things” from Ari’s Eternal Sunshine album, which was released in March. The family matriarch lends her voice to the outro of the song, where she sweetly reminisces about her late husband, Frank.
“And when he’d come home, and I’d see him / When he first gets off that train / It was like God almighty arrived / It was like seeing daylight,” Nonna says in the lyrics. “I mean, I could’ve packed up and left a million times, you know? / It’s not that we never fought, you can overcome that, you know? / It very easy, and as I told her.”
She then leaves listeners with relationship advice, saying, “Never go to bed without kissin’ goodnight / That’s the worst thing to do, don’t ever, ever do that / And if you can’t, and if you don’t feel comfortable doing it / You’re in the wrong place, get out.”
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This isn’t the first time Nonna has been featured on her granddaughter’s album, as she’s also appeared on “Daydreamin’” from 2013’s Yours Truly and “Bloodline” from 2019’s Thank U, Next.
“She was very excited to be on the album and she was very moved by it,” Ariana said of Marjorie during an appearance on The Zach Sang Show in March. “And she loved that she was there. And she told many stories about all the different times she’s been on my albums.”
“Ordinary Things” closes out Eternal Sunshine as the final track, No. 13. In the song, Ariana sings about how nothing feels “ordinary” when she’s with the person she loves. Although they could jet set to California, Japan or France, the singer says she doesn’t want “anything” except “more time” with her partner.
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Ariana spoke about the prominence of Nonna’s outro and how it ties the whole album together.
“It’s interesting because the album starts with a question and ends with an answer from a person that I love and trust so implicitly. I cherish what my family has to share with me,” Ari explained, referencing the first track on Eternal Sunshine. In her album opener, “Intro (End of the World),” she sings, “How can I tell if I’m in the right relationship? / Aren’t you really s’posed to know that s–t? / Feel it in your bones and own that s–t? I don’t know.”
Eternal Sunshine was released weeks after news broke of Ariana’s divorce from husband Dalton Gomez after two years of marriage. She has since moved on with her Wicked costar Ethan Slater.
